Young Artists, Filmmakers and Authors Awarded Prizes in Youth Festival Competitions
This weekend the winners of the Henley Youth Festival competitions were awarded prizes in the art, film and writing competitions. The River & Rowing Museum was transformed into a stunning gallery of Henley Youth Festival (HYF) artwork, for the art and film prize-giving and the Bell Bookshop for the writing competition awards ceremony.
Local author, Amanda Jennings was the judge again for the HYF writing competition. The competition saw over 100 junior entries (Years 4-6) and just over 30 in the infants category. The Bell Bookshop sponsored the prizes for the competition. Amanda said, “This is always a highlight of my year. Again there’s been some amazing entries. I absolutely love reading all the stories and I feel very privileged to be able to come and present the awards to the authors.” Before presenting the Junior award to Kirsten Botha who wrote Bitter Sweet Celebration, Amanda said, “It was a beautifully crafted story with a start, middle and end which was very emotional but with a good use of humour.” Describing Bridget Ashby’s winner of the Infant prize, Best Birthday Ever, Amanda said, “The content had excellent grammar, punctuation, varied vocabulary for such a young writer. Bridget really brought the story to life. I was super impressed and it would be a birthday that I would enjoy.” Stanley Torreiro, aged just 6 from Valley Road was awarded a Highly Commended prize for his Peter & Sam’s Adventures. He told us, “The story is about my imaginary friends and it took me about half an hour to write all on my own.” Stanley’s Mum said, “We didn’t know he had such a hidden talent for writing and he’s gone on to write a book about Peter and Sam with 26 chapters!”
On Sunday, competition judge Josie Stewart presented the awards for the 2D and 3D art categories. Reflecting on the impressive standard of the 2018 competition, Josie commented, “Every year there’s more and more, and higher quality entries. Looking at this year, there’s been more experimentation with different medias.” The theme of ‘celebration’ was clear in all the brilliant creations, with paintings of fireworks, sculptures of cupcakes, photographs of champagne, and a fantastic 3D ‘party house’!
The film competition boasted similar creativity. At the award ceremony, local film-maker and competition judge Jo Southwell revealed that there were “loads of different ideas, so it was really difficult to choose.” She explained that the winners were chosen by their ability to tell a story, and encouraged the young filmmakers to work on this next year.”
All the wonderful winners were awarded with a certificate, an Amazon voucher, and a chocolate Easter egg. Charlene Brown, who organises the Art, Photography and Film Competition, closed the ceremony by saying, “I do hope to see all your faces next year.”
The full list of competition winners are listed below.
2D Art
Infant
1st Joshua Drummond, Valley Road
2nd Benjamin Rilett, Valley Road
Joint 3rd Trinity Primary School (Ava Partridge, Emily Jogn, Zac Carson, Libby Clark, Emilia Nicholls, Rupert Hepburn, Isabella Stobie)
Age 7
1st Rory Stewart, Valley Road
2nd Jessie Duncan, Trinity
3rd Bruno Stola, Trinity
HC Kitty Potter, Trinity
Age 8
1st Alysia Cowling-Rees, Sacred Heart
2nd Molly Walker, Rupert House
3rd Rebecca Malone, Valley Road
HC Evie Carle, Trinity and Suriya Knight, Trinity
Age 9 – 11
1st Rowena Hems, Rupert House
Joint 2nd Ellie Dent, Rupert House and Sophie Nicholson, River & Rowing Museum Art Club
3rd Jessica Brindle & Hope Hawkins, Rupert House
HC Dominic Pusey Arsyad, Trinity, Sophie Chapman, Trinity and Emily Southgate, St Mary’s
Senior 12+
1st Eleanor Whittle, Gillotts
2nd Amelia Priestley, Gillotts
3D Art
Infant
1st Billie Gadson, Shiplake Primary
Age 7-11
1st Millie & Charlie Scott, St Mary’s
2nd Sophia Hughes, Rupert House
3rd Zoe Brindle & Lilian Graham, Rupert House
HC Clara Coetsee, Rupert House
Age 11+
1st Dylan Gadson, Gillotts
Collaborative Art
1st Sonning Common Primary School Art Club
2nd Nettlebed Community School Art Club
HC Sacred Heart
Young Film Maker
Special Mention
Star Wars Lego Celebration – Rowan Richens, Joshua Bentley, William Tavinor, Alexandre Khoury, Henry Allingham
Runner Up
Family – Toby & Lauren (Animation Club at Sacred Heart)
Best Young Animation
Christmas Celebration – Jasper & Wilfred (Animation Club at Sacred Heart)
Junior Film Maker
Special Mention
A Celebration Animation – Luke Bates
Best Short
Mission Barcelona – Connor Botha
Best Animation
Cheerleader – Lottie & Sophie Sarson
Senior Film Awards
Special Mention
What it means to be a Scout – the 1st Henley on Thames Scouts
Best Editor
Celebrating Something Beautiful – Sidni Brener
Writing
Years 1-3
Winner – Bridget Ashby, Nettlebed School
Highly Commended – Stanley Torreiro, Valley Road School
Years 4-6
Winner – Kirsten Botha, Cranfield House
Highly Commended – Jemima Brewer
